I did not know

While we were deliberating upon what was to be done, a hackney coachman, driving softly along, and perceiving us standing by the kennel, came up close to us, and calling, “A coach, master!” by a dexterous manage ment of the reins made his horses stumble in the wet, and bedaub us all over with mud. After which exploit he drove on, applauding himself with a hearty laugh, in which several people joined, to my great mortification; but

 

one, more compassionate than the rest, seeing us strangers, advised me to go into an alehouse, and dry myself. I thanked him for his advice, which I immediately complied with; and, going into the house he pointed out, called  for a pot of beer, and sat down by a fire in the public room. where we cleaned ourselves as well as we could. In the who sat in a box, smoking his pipe, understanding, by our dialect, that we were from Scotland, came up to me. and, with a grave countenance asked how long I had been caught. As I did not know